Social media platforms are effective tools that business leaders can use in order to build and sustain relationships with present and potential customers. The key to attracting customers is to establish a feasible social media marketing plan that enables business leaders to generate content that is beneficial to its agency and the consumer. There are a plethora of social platforms that enable communities to create and share content while inviting members to take action. This chapter reviews two of the most commonly used social networking sites (Facebook and Twitter). It also provides strategies that can be used to measure the effectiveness of each when promoting program awareness in an effort to garner funds.
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Social media is a resource for companies to share content like videos, audio, images and text. There are three platforms within this means. They include online forums, blogging sites and social networks (Kotler & Keller, 2012). According to Kaplan and Haenlein (2010), “Social networking sites are applications that enable users to connect by creating personal information profiles, inviting friends and colleagues to have access to those profiles, and sending e-mails and instant messages between each other. These personal profiles can include any type of information, including photos, video, audio files, and blogs (p.61). The most commonly used social media sites are Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The authors of GlobalWebIndex (2019), a marketing research company that provides in-depth market analysis of global communities, developed a report of 43 global countries.
The results of their research, as shown above highlight how consumers use an array of social networking sites. Taken together, this information can help business leaders to determine which sites are best for advertising per country. It can also help to gain greater insight concerning a consumer’s social media usage as each site has within its system a mechanism for analyzing data. Other reasons for tracking social media insights are loyalty management, customer relationship management and geoanalytics.
According to Dubuqe (2016), three tasks must be completed in order to obtain an effective social strategy. First, organizations must create a targeted profile. The profile must accurately articulate the company’s mission. Engaging and meaningful conversations must also take place on a routine basis. Further, agencies must create goals. Leaders should define the overarching aim of the approach. Is the purpose of the social media strategy engagement, relationship building, or sharing? By virtue of articulating a mission, leaders can determine the best platform and metrics. The business must also determine the position or image that they plan to occupy in the mind of those they engage with online. Images and messages help to create a cogent reason for customers to make a purchase. As the business grows and products extend, it is likely that the agency could create a presence on a number of different sites. While there are hundreds of social media sites, each has a different purpose and their guidelines most be followed appropriately in order to maximize effectiveness.